Presentations - Project for Science and Religion

Mariusz Tabaczek, O.P.

Conference Presentations

Theistic Evolution: A Contemporary Thomistic Perspective – Presentation delivered at the conference titled God and Nature: Reflections on Emergence, Causality and Directionality hosted by Nordic Dialogues on Science, Theology, and Worldviews, on April 17-18 of 2024, in Uppsala, Sweden.

Emergence: A New Ontology for a Scientific Age? – Presentation delivered at the conference titled God and Nature: Reflections on Emergence, Causality and Directionality, hosted by Nordic Dialogues on Science, Theology, and Worldviews, on April 17-18 of 2024, in Uppsala, Sweden.

Does Nature Need Miracles? – Presentation at the conference titled Miracles: Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Perspectives, hosted by Angelicum Thomistic Institute Project for Science and Religion – Rome, March 2024.

Is Pain Metaphysically Evil (Malum Simpliciter)? Some Thoughts from a Thomistic Perspective – Presentation at the conference Pain and Suffering: From Problematic Experience to Knowledge and Solution – organized as part of the Polish-Croatian
international research project titled The Dynamic Theodicy Model: Understanding God, Evil and Evolution ( https://scire.umk.pl/en/ ). Rijeka, November 2023.

Virtuous AI? Some Considerations from the Aristotelian-Thomistic Perspective – Presentation at the online conference Virtuous AI? Cultural Evolution, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtue – organized by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, 24-26 July 2023.

Evolution and Goal-Directedness: How Darwin Re-Invented Teleology – Presentation at the conference Wiara i nauka: Dwie drogi do prawdy [Faith and Science: Two Paths toward Truth] – organized by the Polish section of the Society of Catholic Scientists, 1-2 July 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNWqg28LwMM&list=PLOHA81OP6XN8AD8HAX57gne-buUGskNXS&index=7&ab_channel=StowarzyszenieNaukowc%C3%B3wKatolickich

What is Creation and How Do We Know About It? Part II – Presentation at the conference: Creation, Nature and Grace: Catholics and Reformed in Dialogue – Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, 28 April 2023.

Aristotelian Causal Modeling of Life in the Context of Contemporary Reflection on the Roles of Models in Biology – Presentation at the conference: Modeling, Idealization, and Truth: A Dialogue between Contemporary Philosophy of Science and the Aristotelian Tradition – Rome, 25 February 2023.

Aristotelian-Thomistic Contribution to the Contemporary Studies on Biological Life and Its Origin – A paper presented at the Thomistic Circles Conference Life in the Cosmos: Contemporary Science, Philosophy & Theology on the Origin & Persistence of Life on Earth (and Beyond?) in Washington D.C. on October 15 of 2022.

Classical and Contemporary Versions of Hylomorphism: Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives – a paper delivered at the Eleventh International Thomistic Congress, sponsored by the Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas and the Angelicum Thomistic Institute – Rome 20 September 2022.

Human Enhancement, Transhumanism, Posthumanism and Their Metaphysical Presuppositions – presented as part of the panel entitled “Decolonizing Transhumanism” at the Fifth Annual Conference of the European Academy of Religion in Bologna (June 20, 2022).

Beyond the Four Species of Causes: Aristotle and Aquinas on the Complexity of Causal Relationships and the Variety of Modes of Causation – presented at the Symposium Thomisticum in Cracow (June 2, 2022).

The Origin of the Human Species: Philosophical and Theological Perspectives – one of the key presentations at the conference on The Origin of Life and Nature Before Sin: Scientific and Theological Perspectives organized by the Thomistic Institute (Project for Science and Religion) at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome (April 1-2 of 2022) Online video.

Od słowa do informacji biologicznej (From Word to Biological Information) – Presentation on biological information as part of the Dominican Conference “Destined to Preach the Word” – organized by the Dominican Philosophy and Theology College in Krakow, on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the Polish Dominican Province (3 March 2022).

A response to Robert Koons’s presentation “From Generalized Quantum Mechanics to Substantial Form” – delivered at the Workshop on Idealization, Modeling, and Representation in Philosophy of Science and the Classical Philosophy of Nature, at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome in October 2021.
https://www.academia.edu/62134926/A_response_to_Robert_Koonss_presentation_From_Generalized_Quantum_Mechanics_to_Substantial_Form_

Divine action and Emergence – A Critical Evaluation of the Science-Oriented Panentheism from the Point of View of Classical Theism – one of the key presentations at the Workshop on Divine Action at the Humboldt University of Berlin on November 19, 2021 (as part of the Templeton research project A Virtue-Based Approach to Providence: Bridging the Analytic/Continental Divide in the Central-European Divine Action Debate).

Essentialist and Hylomorphic Notion of Species and Species Transformation – presentation at the session of the grant on evolution and the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition of philosophy and theology at the Blackfriars Hall in Oxford in October of 2021.
https://www.academia.edu/62048989/Divine_Action_and_Emergentist_Panentheism_A_Critical_Evaluation_An_Aristotelian_Thomistic_Approach

Metaphysics of Evolutionary Transitions – An Aristotelian-Thomistic Approach – presentation at the colloquium La nature chez Thomas d’Aquin: histoire et débats contemporains – organized by Facultés Libres de Philosophie et de Psychologie in Paris in October 2021.
https://www.academia.edu/68001957/Metaphysics_of_Evolutionary_Transitions_An_Aristotelian_Thomistic_Approach

Does Teleology Prove the Existence of God or Does God Prove the Existence of Teleology? – presentation at the main session of the conference on Teleology in Physics and Biology, at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome in March of 2021.
https://www.academia.edu/45519853/Does_Teleology_Prove_the_Existence_of_God_or_Does_God_Prove_the_Existence_of_Teleology

DNA & the Secret of Life Classical Philosophy of Nature and Contemporary Science – a lecture delivered at the main session of the conference Science & Religion: The Dialogue Continues, organized by the International High School in Taipei (Taiwan) in November of 2019.
https://www.academia.edu/40912903/DNA_and_the_Secret_of_Life_Classical_Philosophy_of_Nature_and_Contemporary_Science

Classical, Modern and Contemporary Views of Divine Action – a lecture delivered at the main session of the conference Divine Action in an Emerging Universe, organized by the Catholic University of Taipei (Taiwan) in November of 2019.
https://www.academia.edu/40912891/Classical_Modern_and_Contemporary_Views_of_Divine_Action

Reinterpretation of Augustine’s Concept of rationes seminales within the Context of the Contemporary Debate on Thomistic Evolution – a lecture delivered at one of the main sessions of the conference Thomas Aquinas on Creation and Nature, organized by the Thomistic Institute at the Angelicum in Rome in October of 2019.
https://www.academia.edu/40557214/Reinterpretation_o_Augustine_s_Concept_of_rationes_seminales_within_the_Context_of_the_Contemporary_Debate_on_Thomistic_Evolution

From Causal Explanation to Scientific Description and Back Again: The Spectrum of Determination Categories in the Context of Contemporary Science (Od wyjaśniania przyczynowego do opisu naukowego i z powrotem: Spektrum kategorii determinacji w kontekście współczesnych nauk przyrodniczych) – presentation delivered at the XI Polish Philosophical Conference in Lublin, Poland, 09 2019 (within the section of philosophy of nature).
https://www.academia.edu/40341137/Od_wyja%C5%9Bniania_przyczynowego_do_opisu_naukowego_i_z_powrotem_Spektrum_kategorii_determinacji_w_kontek%C5%9Bcie_wsp%C3%B3%C5%82czesnych_nauk_przyrodniczych_From_Causal_Explanation_to_Scientific_Description_and_Back_Again_The_Spectrum_of_Determination_Categories_in_the_Context_of_Contemporary_Science_

Church and Evolution: Potential Points of Convergence and Divergence – presentation delivered at the conference The Limits of Science co-organized by the University of Wroclaw and the Wrocław University of Science and Technology in April 2019.
https://www.academia.edu/39029124/Ko%C5%9Bci%C3%B3%C5%82_a_ewolucja_potencjalne_punkty_zbie%C5%BCno%C5%9Bci_i_rozbie%C5%BCno%C5%9Bci

Creation of the World ex nihilo without Divine Creator: Contemporary Cosmology and the Classical Creation Theology – presentation (in Polish) delivered at the conference God and Religious Believes – organized by the Catholic University of Lublin on October 25 of 2018.
https://www.academia.edu/37658857/Powstanie_wszech%C5%9Bwiata_ex_nihilo_bez_udzia%C5%82u_Boskiego_Stworzyciela_Wsp%C3%B3%C5%82czesna_kosmologia_a_klasyczna_koncepcja_stworzenia

Emergentism and New Mechanical Philosophy of Biology Redefined in Terms of Aristotle’s Theory of Causation – presentation delivered at the conference Insides of Nature: Causalities, Causal Processes, and Conceptions of Nature – organized by the Catholic University of Portugal in Braga, Portugal (September 2018).
https://www.academia.edu/37447375/Emergentism_and_New_Mechanical_Philosophy_of_Biology_Redefined_in_Terms_of_Aristotles_Theory_of_Causation

Does Science allow for God’s Action in the Universe? – presentation delivered in Polish at the conference Osobliwość i Transcendens. Granice bytu i poznania (Individuality and Transcendence. On the Limits of Being and Cognition) organized by the department of philosophy at the University of Rzeszow (May 11-12 2018).
https://www.academia.edu/36659153/Czy_nauki_przyrodnicze_dopuszczaj%C4%85_dzia%C5%82anie_Boga_w_%C5%9Bwiecie

The Image of God in Panentheism: A Critical Evaluation – presentation at the conference The Nature of God. Ontological and Epistemological Issues, organized by the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, and Journalism at the University of Gdansk, Poland (May 2018).
https://www.academia.edu/68004453/The_Image_of_God_in_Panentheism_A_Critical_Evaluation

Classical and Contemporary Hylomorphism and Human Soul (Klasyczny i współczesny hylemorfizm a dusza ludzka). A paper delivered in Polish at the annual conference of the Polish Society of Dogmatic Theologians in Lublin 2017 (the title of the conference: Human Person – Reality or Useful Metaphor?).
https://www.academia.edu/68079800/Classical_and_Contemporary_Hylomorphism_and_Human_Soul_Klasyczny_i_wsp%C3%B3%C5%82czesny_hylemorfizm_a_dusza_ludzka_

From Causal Non-Reductionism and Emergentism to New Aristotelianism and Aquinas’ View of Divine Action. Paper presented at the Classical Theism Workshop at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN in July 2016.

Aristotelian Complement to the Metaphysics of Incompleteness: Philosophical and Theological Reflections on Deacon and Cashman’s Project. Paper presented at The Annual Russell Family Research Conference, organized by the CTNS in Berkeley, CA, on April 16, 2016.
https://www.academia.edu/24670177/Aristotelian_Complement_to_the_Metaphysics_of_Incompleteness_Philosophical_and_Theological_Reflections_on_Deacon_and_Cashman_s_Project

Metaphysics of Downward Causation: New Aristotelianism versus Nonreductionist Physicalism. Paper presented at the conference on Agency and (Quantum) Physics at the University of Innsbruck in 2015.
https://www.academia.edu/11813982/Metaphysics_of_Downward_Causation_New_Aristotelianism_versus_Nonreductionist_Physicalism

Powers View of Divine Action: New Aristotelianism in Analytic Philosophy and Theology. Paper presented at the Dominican Colloquium: What Has Athens to Do with Jerusalem? Dialogue between Philosophy and Theology in the 21^st Century in Berkeley, CA, in 2014.
https://www.academia.edu/8695436/Powers_View_of_Causation_and_Divine_Action

William Wallace and the Retrieval of Aristotle’s Philosophy of Nature: The Role of Chance. Paper presented at the conference: Dominicans and Renewal of Thomism in Washington, D.C., in 2013.
https://www.academia.edu/6036449/William_Wallace_and_the_Retrieval_of_Aristotle_s_Philosophy_of_Nature_The_Role_of_Chance

Public Lectures

Faith and Reason: Aquinas on the Nature and the Method of Theology – presentation at the 2023 Student Summer Seminar on St. Thomas Aquinas, organized by the Angelicum
Thomistic Institute. Rome – July 2023.

Divine Action in the Created Universe: An Aristotelian-Thomistic Perspective – presentation at the 2023 Student Summer Seminar on St. Thomas Aquinas, organized by the Angelicum Thomistic Institute. Rome – July 2023.

Concurrence of Divine and Natural Causes in Evolution: An Aristotelian-Thomistic Perspective – presentation at the 2023 Student Summer Seminar on St. Thomas Aquinas, organized by the Angelicum Thomistic Institute. Rome – July 2023.

Presentation at the book launch: Simon Maria Kopf. Reframing Providence: New Perspectives from Aquinas on the Divine Action Debate. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. ITI Catholic University (Katholische Hochschule) in Trumau (near Vienna), Austria. 01 June 2023.

Public lecture on the Biological, Philosophical, and Theological Aspects of Anthropogenesis delivered (in Polish) for the Dominican School of Faith in Tarnobrzeg, Poland. April 2023.

Does God Create Through Evolution? Thomas Aquinas and Species Transformism. Public lecture for the chapter of the Thomistic Institute at the Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland – February 2023.

The Christian and the Transhumanist Desire for Transcendence: A Critical Evaluation. Science & Religion Online Series 2022/23. Angelicum Thomistic Institute – February 2023. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alsvJfxCrgA )

Contemporary Views on Anthropogenesis: Aristotelian-Thomistic Contribution. Public lecture at the Blackfriars Hall in Oxford, UK. Sponsored by the Aquinas Institute in Oxford – January 26 of 2023.

Evolution and Goal-Directedness: How Darwin Re-Invented Teleology. Public lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boston, USA) sponsored by the Thomistic Institute (Washington D.C.) – October 16 of 2022.

Thomas Aquinas and Evolution – presentation at the 2022 Student Summer Seminar on St. Thomas Aquinas, organized by the Angelicum Thomistic Institute. Rome – July 2022.

How Did We Come to the Conclusion that the Universe Was Created ex nihilo? Live streamed lecture as part of the series of lectures organized by the Thomistic Institute at the Pontifical University of Sint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, delivered on 16 of May 2022. Online video.

Series of 4 lectures on Anthropogenesis, Mono- versus Polygenism, Human Nature, and Original Sin for the students at the Dominican school of Faith in Gdańsk, Poland (March – April 2022).

Lecture on Anthropogenesis (4 x 45 min.) for the students at the Dominican school of Philosophy and Theology in Cracow, Poland (March 2022).

Evolution and Goal-Directedness: How Darwin Re-Invented Teleology. Live streamed lecture as part of the series of lectures organized by the Project for Science and Religion – sponsored by the Thomistic Institute at the Pontifical University of Sint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, delivered on December 15 of 2021.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM3siytj0vo&ab_channel=AngelicumThomisticInstitute

PDF: https://www.academia.edu/64558885/Evolution_and_Goal_Directedness_How_Darwin_Re_Invented_Teleology

Genesis Account of Creation and Evolutionary Theory. Live streamed lecture organized by the Thomistic Institute at the Pontifical University of Sint Thomas Aquinas in Rome delivered in February of 2021 for the audience in Beijing.
https://www.academia.edu/45520122/Genesis_Account_of_Creation_and_Evolutionary_Theory

What is Creation ex Nihilo? A Thomistic Introduction to a Key Christian Belief. Live streamed lecture for the Thomistic Institute at the Pontifical University of Sint Thomas Aquinas in Rome delivered on November 17 of 2020.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9kIFbMFxKw&t=1619s
PDF: https://www.academia.edu/44539289/What_is_Creation_ex_Nihilo_A_Thomistic_Introduction_to_a_Key_Christian_Belief

Does God Create Through Evolution? The Aristotelian-Thomistic Perspective – public lecture for the Thomistic Institute at Blackfriars, Oxford, UK – delivered on February 5 of 2020.
SOUND: https://soundcloud.com/thomisticinstitute/does-god-create-through-evolution-fr-mariusz-tabsczek
PDF: https://www.academia.edu/41956611/Does_God_Create_Through_Evolution_The_Aristotelian_Thomistic_Perspective

Classical Aristotelian-Thomistic Philosophy and Theology and the Theory of Evolution – a public lecture delivered at the Catholic University of Taipei (Taiwan) in November of 2019.
https://www.academia.edu/40912997/Classical_Aristotelian_Thomistic_Philosophy_and_Theology_and_the_Theory_of_Evolution

Emergentism – Its Objectives and Difficulties – a public lecture delivered at the Normal University of Shanghai in November of 2019.
https://www.academia.edu/40912939/Emergentism_Its_Objectives_and_Difficulties

Biological Complexity: A New Scientific Revolution and Its Impact on Philosophy and Theology – a Vivan Lamb Lecture at the Villanova University in Randor Township, PA (April 12 2018).
https://www.academia.edu/36396812/Biological_Complexity_A_New_Scientific_Revolution_and_Its_Impact_on_Philosophy_and_Theology_Vivan_J_Lamb_Lecture_in_theology_and_science_at_the_University_of_Villanova_in_Radnor_Township_Pennsylvania

What Does God Really Do in an Evolutionary Change?: Divine Concurrence and Transformism from the Thomistic Perspective – public lecture at the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at the Gradual Theological Union in Berkeley, CA (April 5 2018).
https://www.academia.edu/36396794/What_Does_God_Really_Do_in_an_Evolutionary_Change_Divine_Concurrence_and_Transformism_from_the_Thomistic_Perspective

Guest seminar lecture What Would Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas Say About Evolution? At the Department of Theology at the University of Torun, Poland (December 2017).

Called to Immortality – The Unique Status of the Human Nature. A lecture delivered in Polish (November 2017) in a series of public lectures on Nature and Grace organized by the Thomistic Institute in Warsaw in 2017/2018.
https://www.academia.edu/36396858/Powo%C5%82ani_do_nie%C5%9Bmiertelno%C5%9Bci_szczeg%C3%B3lny_charakter_natury_ludzkiej_wyk%C5%82ad_otwarty_w_ramach_cyklu_Natura_i_%C5%82aska_Instytut_Tomistyczny_w_Warszawie

DNA and the Secret of Life – Classical Philosophy of Nature Facing Contemporary Science. A lecture delivered in Polish for the opening of the new academic year 2017/2018 at the Dominican College of Philosophy and Theology in Cracow, Poland (in September 2017).

A talk on emergence and divine action at the book launch: Unlocking Divine Action: Contemporary Science & Thomas Aquinas by Michael Dodds, O.P. at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, CA (April 23, 2013).
https://www.academia.edu/6036404/Book_Launch_Unlocking_Divine_Action_Contemporary_Science_and_Thomas_Aquinas_by_Fr_Michael_Dodds_OP